KUALA LUMPUR: With about a week to go to May 15, a total of 894,826 or 25.2% of children aged five to 11 have been fully vaccinated under the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme for Children.
On Twitter, Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin urged parents to take the opportunity to protect their kids from the Covid-19 virus.
“Take this opportunity to protect your children from Covid-19, multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children and other complications from infection.
“Over 1.5 million children have received their jabs in Malaysia, it’s proven safe!” he said on Twitter yesterday.
According to the CovidNow website, 1,542,513 children or 43.4% of the group have received at least one dose of the vaccine.
For teenagers aged 12 to 17, 2,896,056 or 93.1% have completed their vaccination while 2,993,641 or 96.2% have received at least one dose of the vaccine.
On April 27, Khairy said children aged five to 12 who are unvaccinated are only left with paid options if they intend to get their first Covid-19 vaccine dose after May 15.
The only vaccination brand available under this paid programme is Sinovac.
The Health Minister said the government could not afford to extend the deadline due to expiring supply.
Khairy expressed disappointment that only 42% of the country’s children population have been vaccinated despite efforts to promote the programme.
Among the adult population, 16,040,212 or 68.2% have received the booster dose, 22,967,814 or 97.6% have completed the second dose while 23,243,830 or 98.8% have received at least one dose of the vaccine.
A total of 19,105 vaccine doses were administered on Friday with 4,382 as first dose, 13,214 as second dose and 1,509 booster doses, bringing the cumulative total dispensed under the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme to 70,365,518.
According to the Health Ministry’s GitHub portal, there were seven Covid-19 deaths with three cases in Selangor, two cases in Kedah and one case each in Perak and Penang. — Bernama